Cliffs of Moher and The Burren, Ireland

**********TRAVEL TUESDAY*********

Welcome to Travel Tuesday here on the blog, a day where photos taken outside of New England are posted. Today I am blogging about day one of my trip to Ireland.

The flight over was uneventful and came and went without a panic attack on my part. I'd call that a very successful flight!  We landed to sunny skies and temperatures in the 60's-70. Our private mini bus driver, Victor, met us at the airport. He was quite the character and soon became part of the family.

Just to give you a little bit of background on this trip. When my Dad passed away last year, I know that his biggest regret in life was the fact he never went to Ireland. The reason was because my Mother was afraid of flying (the apple doesn't fall far from the tree) and he wouldn't go without her. We have a lot of family in Ireland. Some we have met when they came over to the United States but many others we had not met. The day of my Dad's funeral, I told my Sister Kathleen that I was going to go to Ireland. I didn't want the same regrets that my father had. And so it began.......I planned the entire trip myself, with a little help from my cousins. Mr S did not come on the trip with me as he had no desire to go. Upon my return I found out another reason why he didn't go. He had a huge surprise for me when I got home. More on that surprise later. Miss J came on the trip with me, as well as my sister Kathleen, her husband Jim, my niece and nephew Kristen and Brian and Kristen's boyfriend Dave. Also three of my cousins came on this trip......all three of them had already been to Ireland several times so it was great having them with us......especially during our extended family visits. More on those visits coming during future blog posts.

Our first stop after landing was to see The Cliffs of Moher. We were so lucky to have such a beautiful blue sky day. The wind was fierce but the fresh air felt wonderful!

From here, our driver drove us through the Burren. The Burren is a region in County Clare. It is a vast landscape of bedrock incorporating a vast cracked pavement of glacial-era limestone.........with cliffs and fossils, and rock formations. It made me feel as though I was walking on a different planet. 

This photo was taken just at the start of the Burren region. You can see the limestone in the upper right hand portion of the land mass in this image. The mountains beyond the ocean are in Connemara.

I'm not sure of the name of this castle, but it was located to theNorth of where I was standing when I shot the previous photo.

There was plant life growing amongst the limestone.

My nephew Brian.

The curvy roads throughout the Burren.

One final road shot as we made our way up to Galway City where we spent the first four nights.

Day one was fantastic! Next Tuesday I will blog about Galway City.....a place that stole a piece of my heart!

As always, go back and click on the photos for a larger view.